Story+2002-10-07+Buffalo,+NY

“(Crowd cheers) I got it tonight (crowd cheers) working right there…but uh…thanks, great to be in Buffalo, thanks for coming out (crowd cheers) need a little bit of quiet for these next two songs, please, thank you…”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, intro to “Empty Sky”**

“Alright, let’s go…good looking women, handsome gentlemen…”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, intro to “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”**

“Alright, Buffalo, are you ready for a house party? (crowd cheers) (does the “Are you ready”-call-and-response with the crowd)… (…) Are you ready for that house party now? (crowd cheers) but if you’re gonna have a house party, the music has got to be righteous (crowd cheers) now I wanna introduce you to the greatest little house band in all the land (crowd cheers) heart-stopping, earth-shocking, earth-quaking, heartbreaking Professor Roy Bittan on the piano, ladies and gentlemen (crowd cheers) out of New York City, Sister Soozie Tyrell on the violin and vocals (crowd cheers) the coolest little deejay in the U.S.A and the only man in America who gets away with playing whatever the fuck he wants on the radio, Little Steven Van Zandt (crowd cheers) rise up!…on the bass, the Tennessee Terror, Mr. Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) on the drums, the man that brings the power night after night, hour after hour, the Mighty, Mighty Max Weinberg on the drums (crowd cheers) on the guitar, Secretary of heart and spirit, the great Nils Lofgren on guitar (crowd cheers) on the organ and accordion, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, newly divorced and, ladies, he hates to be alone, brother Dan Federici on the organ (crowd cheers) on the vocals, the lovely, guitar, Miss Patti Scialfa (crowd cheers) rescue me, take me in your arms…‘cause I’m lonely and I’m blue and I need…and last but not least (crowd cheers) Minister of soul (crowd cheers) Secretary of the universe (crowd cheers) you wish you could be like him, ladies and gentlemen, but you can’t, I’m sorry, you just can’t…on the saxophone, Big Man, Clarence Clemons (crowd cheers) rumble, young man, rumble, that’s right…oh yeah… alright…give yourself a goddamn hand while you’re at it (crowd cheers) why not?...”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, middle of “Mary’s Place”**

“Thank you…we thank you (crowd cheers) this is for you old-timers out there (crowd cheers)…”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, intro to “Lost in the Flood”**

“Are you ready to dance? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, intro to “Dancing in the Dark”**

“Woo!...are you ready to roadhouse? (crowd cheers)… (…) Stevie…I do think it’s quitting time...I do think it is time to get some sleep (crowd: “No”)…I do believe it is time to let these poor people go home (crowd: “No”)…I do believe it’s time to meet those two hookers waiting at the Holiday Inn...then, Stevie, what time is it?...(Steve: “It’s Boss-time!”)...”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, intro to “Ramrod”**

“Thank you, thank everybody for coming out tonight, thanks a lot (crowd cheers) thank you very much…oh, we have some friends with us in the hall tonight, we got the Foodbank of Western New York, they’re out in the lobby…please if you get a chance, stop by and say “hello,” they could use your support and some time, the, uh…each month about 91,000 western New Yorkers turn to soup kitchens and food pantries to survive and make it, forty percent of those folks are kids, Foodbank of Western New York, (?) food producers who have surplus food to the folks that really need it, they’ve been doing this since 1978 and, uh (crowd cheers) they serve – yeah (crowd cheers) they could use your support and help, please check out the Foodbank of Western New York, this is for them…”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, intro to “My City of Ruins”**

“Thank you…woo…I wanna thank again everybody for coming out, thanks so much for coming out to the show (crowd cheers) we appreciate your support (crowd cheers) before we go, just a couple of quick public service announcements, once again the Foodbank of Western New York out there, they could use your support there, please stop by and check ‘em out…the other one is just kind of a little bit of a heads-up: we’re in the midst of a rollback of Civil Rights right now, Civil Rights are a reaffirmation of our strength as a nation of laws, we don’t usually think about it till it comes knocking on our door, until it’s too late but during times of emergency Civil Rights always take a beating so it’s a good time to be very vigilant, also there’s an awful lot of war talk in the air, it’s never served our nation well to go rushing into a war so however you feel about it, I think you should demand a full debate on the subject and as much information as you can get (crowd cheers) that vigilance and that responsibility comes with the turf when you’re born in the U.S.A (crowd cheers)…”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, intro to “Born in the U.S.A”**

“This is our last night in the States for a little while…so before we shuffle off from Buffalo (crowd cheers) we’ll do this one for you… because we’ve got miles to go before we sleep, Stevie (chuckles) …we’ve got to work on the highway, brother, come on…”
 * 07.10.02 Buffalo, NY, intro to “Working on the Highway”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//